sermons by The Rev. D. Scott Russell

Embracing the Pagan Roots of Christmas

The headline immediately caught my attention: Mich. Residents Receive Letter Calling Christmas Lights “Pagan.” Someone on the night of Dec.14th drove around Hudsonville, Michigan, hand-delivering letters to any house featuring holiday displays informing them that they were honoring not the Baby Jesus, God’s Son, but the pagan sun god, Saturn. My immediate reaction might not be what one would expect of a member of the clergy. The first words out of my mouth were, “The author of this letter is right!”

I say that the author is right, not in condemning people for putting up holiday displays, but in that the actual facts of the letter are mostly correct. The celebration of Jesus’ nativity came relatively late in the evolution of the Early Church. The date of Christmas was chosen most likely, as the letter suggests, to fall on or near the Winter Solstice so that early missionary efforts by the post-Constantinian church among northern Europeans could “baptize” pagan festivals and re-fashion them as Christian celebrations.

By offering his or her neighbors this lesson in basic Church history, the author of the letter has performed a valuable service, not by chastising them for celebrating, but in reminding them of the true origins of Christmas and in underscoring that celebrations this time of year are more deeply-rooted than in any one religious faith.

We are being told that there is a “war on Christmas” being waged by secular entities in this country, bent on stripping the Christian celebration of Jesus’ birth of its “true meaning.” We are told to boycott any retailer that won’t say, “Merry Christmas,” because “Jesus is the reason for the season.” Signs festoon yards in more pious neighborhoods, “Put Christ back in CHRISTmas!”

The first time I saw one of these signs I flashed back to a similar dust-up I recall happening during my childhood in the 70s. “Don’t X Jesus out of Christmas,” those bumper stickers read, denouncing anyone retailer or individual who might use the word “Xmas” as shorthand. It was believed to be a plot by the ACLU, first dreamed up Charles Darwin, no doubt. My father, a United Methodist minister, and a fairly well-educated one, pointed out the fundamental error of this fundamentalist movement. The “X” used in “Xmas” actually is the first letter of the ancient Greek word for Christ. It truly was an abbreviation and about as disrespectful, he said, as writing “U.S.A.” on a letter. In my child’s mind I opened a new folder a slipped this fact in. I then marked the folder, “Some people are uneducated and WRONG!”

Such it is these days with those demanding Christmas be given predominance over all other holidays this time of year. Wishing a fellow American “Happy Holidays” is seen as even unpatriotic, because, we are told, our nation was founded on “Christian principals.” I laugh to myself to think the fevered imaginations of members of the “Merry Christmas brigade” picture the Founding Fathers going door-to-door Christmas caroling, or handing evangelistic tracts out on street corners. When any student of actual U.S. history knows that many American Christians, especially Puritans and Baptists, prohibited or even completely outlawed any observance of Christmas in their churches and communities, finding it “too Catholic,” “too pagan,” or even “too British!” If you had walked into your neighborhood dry-goods store in New England and demanded that the owner wish you a Merry Christmas, you might have been branded a “papist” or, far worse, “a loyalist”!

It was only after the Civil War that American “civil religion” began to embrace Christmas and widely adopt customs such as Christmas trees, holly, mistletoe, yule logs, and yes, even Santa Claus. ALL of these traditions have pagan origins, including Santa, an amalgamated figure composed of multiple pagan and Christian legends, like much of American mythology. Those who wish to “rescue” Santa from any pagan ties will quickly find themselves faced with St. Nicholas, a rather gaunt, austere Orthodox Bishop, who does NOT speak English, will NOT ask your children what they want for Christmas, but will rather tell you to give generously to the poor. Many would find him “too Catholic” and kind of off-putting, preferring to spend his time not in Macy’s but in churches smelling of incense.

If you were to ask members of the “Merry Christmas brigade” when St. Nicholas Day is, could they tell you? Nope. (It’s December 6th, by the way.) If you asked them the significance of the “Twelve Days of Christmas,” they would most likely tell you that they are a countdown to Christmas beginning on December 14th, or that they were a secret code used to educate Catholic children who were being persecuted in post-Reformation England. Wrong on both counts, and laughably so! That file in my child’s brain is filling up rapidly! If you were to ask these “Christmas crusaders” what might be a good time to take down one’s Christmas tree, they might suggest December 26th, or perhaps New Year’s Day, oblivious that Christmas is a religious season, not just one day. Finally, if you asked them what Epiphany is or when it is, you’d probably get a blank stare in return.

I make trouble for myself insisting that we get our traditions and history right. Epiphany is a feast of the Church as old as Christmas, celebrating the arrival of the Magi, or wisemen, those pagan astrologers, not to the manger but to the “house” where they paid homage and gave gifts to the child Jesus. The Gospel of Luke has shepherds and angels. The Gospel of Matthew tells the story of the wisemen. But none of this seems to matter to the “Christmas crusaders,” as long as they hear “Silent Night” in Walmart in November.

I finally had an epiphany of my own this year. Despite the fact that they demand secular American society observe Christmas, these people do not understand nor do they practice the actual historical traditions of Christmas! Their crusade is not truly about history or tradition. Their crusade is about power. The “War on Christmas” is, more precisely, an attempt to reassert Christian dominance in a nation that is rapidly becoming quite post-Christian and happily so. And yet these crusaders have taken their cues not from authentic Christian history, but from the watered-down, jingle-bell version of the holiday. It’s like they adopted the commercial shopping frenzy that lasts from Black Friday to December 24th and slapped a Jesus-fish on it. In reality, their Christmas looks almost nothing like what it did in colonial times, let alone Jesus’ day. Their Christmas, as Dr. Seuss’ Grinch once observed, actually seems to have come from a store.

So what if secular, capitalist America gets the details of Christmas wrong? What’s more important — historical accuracy or political expediency? If religious tradition fails to garner votes or serve as fodder for another scare-mongering conspiracy theory, who needs it? Well, I for one need it. I need a holiday that reminds me how my ancestors, even my pre-Christian ancestors, experienced their homeland. I need a holiday that doesn’t seek to sanitize its more enigmatic elements, but celebrate the crazy hodge-podge of origins it represents. We humans are at our best when we admit how impure and borrowed most of our traditions are. Even the ancient pagan traditions evolved from earlier peoples and stories. Let’s admit it and celebrate it!

The holidays this time of year do NOT owe their existence to Jesus’ birth. These days, the darkest nights of the year, the Solstice, are a time to celebrate the rebirth of the sun, at least for those of us living in the Northern Hemisphere. For ancient northern peoples, Solstice actually marked mid-winter’s day and was celebrated by people filling their homes with evergreens, candles, great roaring fires, feasting, ample spirits, singing, plays, and yes, even ghost stories. Is it any wonder that Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and Christmas all feature candles in their celebrations? It’s dark out there! Quick, let’s light a fire! We all long for light, for warmth, for community.

This year, Christmas Day falls on a Sunday. And what will many Protestant churches do? They will cancel their church services, opting instead to spend time at home with their families, or so I am told. What better way to say, “Happy Birthday, Jesus!”? But not all churches will be locked up tight this Christmas morning. There are those of us who want to put the MASS back in ChristMAS! If you look, you’ll find us, those who would probably be branded as “pagan” by certain letter-writers in Michigan. All I know is, we’re a pretty merry bunch!

As a Christian, I celebrate right alongside my pagan friends and neighbors. The Christian story tells us that the child born in Bethlehem was also the birth of the light. God does not hate matter, but rather climbed inside human flesh to become a vulnerable, mortal infant. This moment of incarnation, the birth of Jesus, is not about power or predominance. It is about humility and patience. It is about the birth of hope and the longing for light fulfilled.

The pagan roots of Christmas remind me of how interconnected I am with my neighbors. I experience this season with the rest of my human family, these short days and long nights, lighting candles in the darkness and watching for the morning. Sadly, most of those thronging the malls pay little attention to our collective history. Generations ago, before the winter holidays became a retailer’s means-to-an-end, when all religion was local, human beings gathered together on the darkest nights of the year for survival, kindling fires in hope that the sun would return. Sadly we have become so removed from the earth, we have forgotten how fragile life is when the weather outside is frightful.

The traditions this time of year have evolved and changed as new cultures and faiths have encountered them. People have adopted and adapted ancient traditions and made them their own. I consider them all a blessing this time of year. I enjoy the traditions handed down to me, and I revel in them, pagan roots and all. Thus I say to my pagan friends, “Tell me your stories, and I’ll tell you mine. Oh, and pass that jug of wine! Give me some Wassail, and I’ll help you drag in the Yule Log!” Evergreens, candles, food and drink, all symbols of survival and hope, bind us together as one human family. And so to us, and I mean ALL of us, I wish “Happy Holidays!”

Fr. Russell . . . . . I have read your blog, posted on Facebook by my nephew. I like to know what is of interest to my family, so I clicked on the link to your message about Christmas. I can’t help but wonder just who these people are who make up the “Merry Christmas Brigade” and where did you find them? Who are these “Christmas Crusaders” who tell of a “War on Christmas”? Their crusade, you say, is not about tradition or history, it is about power. I beg to differ with you on this. . . . . of course, I do not know of ‘brigades’ or ‘crusaders’, but I do know of folks like myself who wish to celebrate (however, or with whomever I wish) the fact that “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us”. We ‘party’ at the thought of Jesus taking on human form, and being born in humble beginnings to a virgin and a carpenter. (or was the virgin birth myth or fiction, or fact?)

At Christmastime, no matter what day or just how it is celebrated, I rejoice in His birth, life, death, resurrection, ascension, and eventual return! I celebrate neither history or tradition. I celebrate the miraculous birth of God’s Son. It matters not to me that the date we remember His birth was a pagan marked incident when “human beings gathered together on the darkest nights of the year for survival, kindling fires in hope that the sun would return.” As a matter of fact, I like the analogy. We too gather together “on the darkest nights”, kindling fires in HOPE that the SON will return!

We are not demanding that our celebration of the birth of the Savior of the world take predominance over all other holidays . . . . . just that it would remain one of the holidays! I believe these folks you are calling “Christmas crusaders” feel that they are in an uphill battle to keep at least something of their traditional, yes THEIR traditional celebrations of Christmas. This is not a struggle for power, it is a struggle for religious freedom. In this struggle we do not “demand secular American society observe Christmas.” And with all due respect, we do not feel that we need to “understand or practice the actual historical traditions of Christmas”! We want to celebrate the birth of Christ out of an overflow of graditude for His Life and Light to a dark world. And where did you get the picture of “the fevered imaginations of members of the “Merry Christmas brigade” (who) picture the Founding Fathers going door-to-door Christmas caroling, or handing evangelistic tracts out on street corners”?? What, Fr. Russell, is the profit of ridiculing Christians in this way?

We don’t want to take away the religious holidays of others, but we do want to hang on to ours, to celebrate with family and friends what is in our hearts of graditude for what God has done. So much of Christmas seems to be under fire these days. I don’t know crusaders, but I do know people who call themselves Christians, who are being told that they can not place a nativity scene in their front yard to remind passersby of God’s great love for them. I know children who are being told that they cannot take a candy cane to school to give to their friends. I know teachers who are told not to allow the colors red or green to be used by the children to decorate their rooms. There is to be absolutely no mention of Jesus in the classroom where once the celebration of His birth was made plain in their artwork displayed on the bulletin boards.

Your epiphany seems lacking. The “War on Christmas” is, you state, “more precisely, an attempt to reassert Christian dominance in a nation that is rapidly becoming quite post-Christian and happily so.” The war on Christmas is meant to remove it from our culture. The defense of Christmas is not to reassert Christian dominance in our nation, but to retain “the free exercise thereof”. (Amendment I of the Constitution)

I laugh to myself to think the fevered imaginations of members of the “Merry Christmas brigade” picture the Founding Fathers going door-to-door Christmas caroling, or handing evangelistic tracts out on street corners.

I would tend to disagree. The true meaning of Christmas is in fact Jesus. Had He not come, we would not celebrate Christmas. However, the letter was, in fact, correct in timing. The actual birth of Christ was probably in the September / October time frame. The early Catholic church chose the Winter Solstice, since they did not the exact time of His birth; probably to attract more pagans to the church and to keep familiar holiday times.

To your point of how we will spend Christmas, I can’t speak for other churches, but mine will be open as usual.

As someone who does not define/associate myself with any particular religion or God I cringe every time one of the “Christmas Crusaders” I personally know begins one of their tangents. So it pleased me to read such an intelligent article and one without the air of “I own this holiday and you are not welcome to it.” It pleases me more than someone who identifies himself as Christian wrote it.

I hope you have a very happy Christmas with your family and your congregation.

This was fabulous! It definitely helped articulate some of the things I’ve felt for a long time and gave me a little more background to go on. As a Catholic, I’ve always felt a bit uncomfortable with the proprietary air towards what started off as a hijacked holiday.

While I am pagan and can acknowledge pagan roots in the 25th, proof being in the Bible itself… Jesus was not born Dec 25th, Herod died the year of taxation on Nov 27 historians have show this too.. so… point being if you are going to be legalistic then perhaps you should celebrate Christmas. Most likely this letter was not sent by a pagan. We really are not all that bold or bad. Reason being we believe in a rule of three. Secondly the talking of the letter is similar to Jehovah’s witnesses.
The parting I will say if you don’t want pagan in your holidays or around you at all many things would have to be changed. Religions (not just Christianity and Paganism) have been built and modified to have hatred lurking in their mists. Hate as a pagan is something I try to avoid… because everyside has a valid an hurtful arguement. But hate from a Christians perspective is not of god. However you see many Christians preaching it and as long as it is being done to someone who is not of their denomination they see it as okay. Jesus said as you do to the least of these, you have also done to me. You don’t acknowledge that what you have in your religion now is a hodge podge of other religions you are blinded.

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Fr. Scott Russell

Scott served for over 10 years as the Episcopal Chaplain at Virginia Tech and as the Associate Rector of Christ Episcopal Church, Blacksburg. He then served as Rector of St. Brendan's Episcopal Church in Franklin Park, PA. He is currently serving as the Episcopal Chaplain at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ.
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